1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photographic printing method for printing images on a photographic printed material having a silk-finished and glossy texture like a silver-film picture, a manufacturing method of the photographic printed material, and a printing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Photographic printing methods include a thermal transfer type in that a color material, such as dye, of a thermal transfer sheet is thermally transferred on a recording medium to form images. In this method, a transparent image protection layer is further formed on the images for protecting the images formed on the recording medium. This thermal transfer type process has a grey scale system that optionally controls the image density, so that high-quality images excellent in gradation and color reproduction and near to a silver-film picture can be obtained.
In this thermal-transfer type process, since the color material is thermally transferred on the recording medium, it is necessary to increase the transfer rate of the color material to the recording medium. Thus, the surface of the recording medium may generally be smooth so as to be easily transferred by a color material. Hence, in the thermal transferring photographic printing, the glossiness of the photographic printed material has a tendency to increase.
On the other hand, in the field of the silver-film picture, it has been well-known that there are a glossy finished surface and a silk finished surface, so that a user may select these through one's preference. Recently, a photographic printed material with a glossy and silk-finished surface may also have been further preferred. The surface processing of the photographic printed material has been described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publications No. 2003-211841 and No. 2004-122756.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-211841, when the relative-specular glossiness of the surface of a thermal-transfer resin layer is less than 65% at a measurement angle of 60° measured in compliance with JIS Z 8741 (Japanese Industrial Standards) in the transferred photographic printed material, the glare due to light reflection during observing images can be prevented. However, this document has a purpose for preventing the glare, i.e., the matte finish, and has no purpose for achieving a glossy and silk-finished photographic printed material. In the measurement of the glossiness, with increasing glossiness, the measurement angle is generally reduced; whereas, in this document, the measurement angle is 60°, so that the matte finished photographic printed material, i.e., the low glossy material, has been discussed.
The documents concerning the matte finish include Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-122756; however, any document does not achieve the glossy and silk-finished photographic printed material.